A Temple University linguistics professor has just issued a treatise on the floating "like" so familiar to us all, like. And her study, like, grants "like" linguistic validity, like, as a
discourse particle (the evolution of language marches on...):
http://www.jsonline.com/enter/gen/sep02/71334.asp
Interesting link. It's a must-read for all those people who are, like, "Language rules are prescriptive and not descriptive."
I dunno. "Um" seems, somehow, more evocative ...
"Um" seems, somehow, more evocative ...
Yes. And rounded and, ummm, expressive.
Ah, and it pairs up very nicely with, um, well, "ah" actually.
What's wrong with like, um both of them?
jj
Y'know, um, all you guys, like, I put this in Q&A because, um, I really wanted some, like, serious discourse on this subject. Like, sheesh! [rolleyes-e]
Re: Serious discussion
Is there a difference between Liverpudlian "like" as demonstrated by the Beatles in their day, like, and heard by me, at least, with a distinctly Liverpudlian accent and today's (more American influenced?) "like", like?
well, like while we're on the subject of, like new linguistic things. . .I am SO not happy with some of them. They like SO worth using - not!
Is there a difference between Liverpudlian "like"..... and today's more (American influenced?) "like", like? Scousers I've known have always put the "like" at the end of the sentence, Jo, and I reckon its linguistic value would be even less than the (um) Californian version.
But what do I know? We really need dody's opinion on this one, like.
I take the Scousers' "...like" to be equivalent to the Southerners' "...know what I mean?". But then I suppose you could say "...know what I mean, like?"
dxb.
I'll be watching for when this "elevation" appears in grammar textbooks. Language does indeed march on.
I can't help but feel that there is a strong usage similarity between the end-of-sentence "Liverpudlian "like" as demonstrated by the Beatles in their day, like", and the Canadian "eh". FWIW, I don't think this "like" is used at all in the same way as the article states.
Speaking of end-of-sentence add-ons: don't the French often say, "non?" at the ends of statements? Are there other languages/cultures that do this? In a quick-think about why, I guess ... that we are seeking to establish whether the listener a.) understands what we are saying, and/or b.) agrees with us.
That sort of rising inflection or period questioning is also a way to elicit from the listener an affirmation of their attnetion. For example, on the "South Park" animated show, the schoolteacher who is frequently saying "mmkay?" Now kids, drugs are bad, mmkay?"
What about the British "what" at the end of the sentence, what? Is that now an anachronism, or is it still in use in certain regions or dialects? Or is is more of a Hollywood affectation, what?
>That sort of rising inflection
ends almost every utterance out of Zildian mouths, a very confusing pattern for bottomworlders when first they hear it.
What about the British "what" at the end of the sentence, what? Is that now an anachronism, or is it still in use in certain regions or dialects? Or is is more of a Hollywood affectation, what?
I believe it went out with the monocle! But I am ready to be corrected, there may be some recluses in Budleigh Salterton who still use it in between writing to the Times, what, what? Not sure if it was meant to be followed by a question mark, it was strictly rhetorical after all.
dxb.
There's a slip of paper in my Junk Drawer MemoryŽ with a note scribbled on it that says (the note, not the slip of paper) it's wot not what and it's a part of the verb wittan, to know (as a fact, not as a person; that'd be kennan). Nothing on the note to suggest that this WDIŠ is either confirmed or denied.
it's a part of the verb wittan, to know
Another slightly dated sentence-ending comes to my mind, y'know?
I suppose "right" and/or "yeah" can function a bit like the Scouser "like" for non-scousers.
I was walking down the road, right, when I tripped over a manhole cover, y'know, and went arse over tit into a plate glass window, yeah? Like they have in a jeweller's.
Anyway...
There was I, diggin' this 'ole, 'ole in the ground
It was big an' sort o' round it was
An' there was I, diggin' it deep
It was round at the bottom and the sides were steep....
[strolls off whistling-e]
You were quite right, W'ON, I should have PMd modestgoddess about her slogan. [And I have. I have asked her politely to lose it, more for her own sake than for ours as it exposes her to painful and undeserved self-ridicule.] As for Capital Kiwi, he was abusing his privileges on the board by stalking wwh from thread to thread with deliberately offensive remarks. Whatever provocation wwh may have offered CapitalK in the past, that is no excuse for him to contaminate the atmosphere for others. Thank you for pointing out the error of my ways with MG.
In reply to:
As for Capital Kiwi, he was abusing his privileges on the board by stalking wwh from thread to thread with deliberately offensive remarks. Whatever provocation wwh may have offered CapitalK in the past, that is no excuse for him to contaminate the atmosphere for others.
The above, of course, completely ignores the reality, that it was simply banter between friendy acquaintances of long standing. Dr. Bill has himself engaged in making such remarks about others with whom he gets on well. To publicly berate someone's actions without a full understanding of the nature of those actions is counterproductive, and carries more than a whiff of hubris.
Wordminstrel, or whatever sock puppet you are using today, please mind your own damned business. You are new here, and you are abusing your "privileges" by making and then publishing assumptions which are based on nothing but your own bile. Don't take the fact that you are the only one commenting on my behaviour as a sign that everyone else is too dim to see the abuse which is so obvious to you. They know, as you clearly don't, that it's much more apparent than real.
And, BTW, everyone else, has anyone heard how Bill is? He's put the fact that he's had a family argument and may not be posting again in his bio.
We will not be dragged back to the bad time.